On Sunday morning, I dragged myself out of bed at 7am, and by 8 the whole gang of us interns were at the Wyman Towers bus stop, trying to catch taxis to the Greyhound coach station. After some desperate hailing (streets tend to get pretty deserted 8am on Sunday mornings, we were at the station. It was a grey morning, and the sun wasn't out. For the past couple of weeks, while we were stuck in a windowless office at the Institute, the weather had been absolutely perfect, but it HAD to be like this when we decide to go out.

The rest of the one-hour coach journey was pretty uneventful, and soon enough we were at DC. We set off on foot from the station towards the Mall, where most of the sights in DC are. The Mall is laid out similarly to a park in Paris (I was there last year, but I can't remember its name), with the Capitol Hill at one end and the Lincoln Memorial on the other, with the Washington Monument in between and the White House near it. After walking for about 15 minutes, we got to the pool in front of Capitol Hill, where the Capitol building stood, a large and imposing building. As we stood there taking pictures, it began to rain! We hurriedly ran towards some shelter, but after a while we decided that if it was going to keep raining, we might as well try and spent our time inside the museums. We walked under the rain towards the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum about 15 minutes away, and by the time we got there we were pretty much soaked.

The central area of the Mall is mostly occupied by several museums run by the Smithsonian Institution, such as the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, American History Museum etc. The Air and Space Museum was a place where I wanted to go to since I was a really young kid...when we got there, right in front of the entrance were a bunch of actual historical air- and space-craft, including the Apollo 11 command module, the X-15, the Spirit of St. Louis etc. We spent most of the afternoon there as rain continued to pour down outside. Me and Tom decided to go and see the IMAX theatre, which showed a pretty good movie on the Space Station...I must say I also enjoyed prattling loudly away about astronomy with Tom before the show started. After that, we went to see the exhibits, and I was somewhat perplexed by his enthusiasm and interest at the astronomy exhibits...we're supposed to know that stuff already for goodness' sake!

Later in the afternoon, when the rain became a drizzle, we left the Air and Space Museum, and started walking towards the Washington Monument. There was a Latin American festival that was going on in some large tents pitched in the middle of the Mall, and Esteban and Rafael dragged us into a tent where some Colombian musicians and dancers were performing. Ole Colombia! As it started to rain harder, we decided to soldier on and make our way to the Lincoln Memorial further down the Mall. By the time we got there, we were drenched, but still there was a huge crowd of people camped in and around the area to watch the fireworks scheduled for later in the evening. We queued up for some sandwiches at a refreshment stand, and found ourselves a spot in the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Fortunately, the rain stopped before it got dark, and the fireworks were absolutely spectacular and awe-inspiring, being fired from the base of the Washington Monument and lighting up the night sky over it. It must have inspired in the minds of Americans the words 'by the rocket's red glare...' from their national anthem.

After the fireworks, some of us decided to depart back to Baltimore, but I was among those who was to stay the night at DC. We walked to our hostel to the north of the Mall, and while we passed by the night-lit White House on the way, although we could only catch a glimpse of the Oval Office from a distance.

The next day, we walked back to the Mall, and we tried to get better pictures of the White House, but as we approached it, we and everyone else were told to leave the area by some extremely rude policemen who were clearing the area. We decided to try and get tickets for the Washington Monument instead, but by the time we got there, it was already sold out. However, a random lady just handed to us 3 tickets for the Monument, saying she didn't want them. Unfortunately, the tickets were all for different times, 11.30, 12.30 and 3pm. We drew lots to decide who would go up (I didn't get one), and then the rest of us went to the National Art Gallery while Tom and Rafael went up on their tickets.

The Gallery had a very imposing facade and a huge foyer with fountain and black marble columns, and I think the design was more impressive than the National Gallery in London. The collections were quite impressive as well, with a lot of famous works, although unfortunately I could only view a very small part of it. I particularly enjoyed an exhibit of landscapes by a late 19th century American artist called Sanford Gifford. His paintings are dominated by light interacting with vast and monumental landscapes.

At 1pm, we met up and went to have lunch at the food court at Union Station, travelling by Metro this time. After lunch, Gara, who held the last ticket, decided not to go to the Washington Monument, so we decided to go together to the Arlington National Cemetery.

The Arlington National Cemetery is where the USA buries its military dead, and there are over 250,000 graves there. While there, despite my opinions on current US foreign policy, I kept in mind that most of the graves there were of soldiers who died in more righteous wars. We visited John F. Kennedy's grave and memorial, where there was a eternal flame with plaques of him with his wife and two children who died at birth. We went from there to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a soldier is constantly on guard, and we managed to catch the changing of the guard. The floor was marked black at the points where the soldiers march.

From there, we decided to move on to the Marine Corps memorial, probably one of the most iconic statues in the country. It was located just outside the cemetery, although by then we were completely knackered. After the memorial, we made our way to the coach station and back to Baltimore.

Washinton DC is a very picturesque city, with the central parts very well planned, with wide boulevards and very nice buildings...almost like Paris in fact (the architect who designed the city was French, after all). However, while being so close to the heartland of American imperialism, I could not help but feel a slight background discomfort as I saw the White House with my own eyes, with its army of guards surrounding it, and concrete barriers barring the entrances.